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10 benefits of Smart Investor

Whether you’re new to investing or a more experienced investor, Smart Investor has lots of different tools available to help.

The value of investments can fall as well as rise and you could get back less than you invest. If you’re not sure about investing, seek independent advice.

What you’ll learn:

How ready-made investments can offer a ‘one-stop shop’ for investors looking for a simple way to build a portfolio.

How the Funds List could help you narrow down the various investment options.

How we’ve made the transfer process as straightforward as possible.

Smart Investor is designed to help you achieve your investment goals, whether you’re an experienced investor, or are just getting started. It offers plenty of tools to ensure you stay up-to-date with the latest market news, research and insight, and makes it easy to transfer existing investments and ISAs across to us.

Remember that investments can fall as well as rise in value, and you could get back less than you invest. We don’t offer personal advice, so if you’re unsure about whether to invest or which investments to choose, you should seek professional financial advice.

Here’s our rundown of the top 10 Smart Investor benefits:

1. Learn

If you’re just starting out as an investor, the Learn section of Smart Investor explains some of the things you need to know about getting your finances in order before you begin, as well as how to plan your investment goals. It’s got lots of useful tips, including how to make the most of annual tax allowances, and ways you can reduce and manage the risks you’ll be exposing your money to during your investing journey. Bear in mind that whatever you do to manage risk, you could still make a loss.

2. Research Centre

Our Research Centre has a wide range of information to help you make smarter investment decisions, including free daily stock and market insight alerts so you can keep up-to-date with the latest price changes, as well as overviews of how different markets are performing. It also provides the very latest fund news, including those funds which offer the highest dividend yields. Remember however, that past performance should not be used as a guide to future performance, and that there are no guarantees that dividend and income payments will continue for any fund.

3. Ready-made Investments

Ready-made investments can provide a useful way to spread your money across a range of asset types, such as shares and bonds, offering a ‘one stop shop’ approach for investors looking for a simple way to build and maintain a diversified portfolio. Barclays’ Ready-made Investments, for example, remove the complexity from investing by offering a choice of funds which you can try to match to your chosen risk profile and financial goals. While they may be suitable for you and sound appealing if you’re not sure where to start or don’t feel you have the time to choose your own individual funds, this isn’t a recommendation. You should seek independent advice if you need help with your investment decisions.

4. Price Improver

We check the prices from our selected Retail Service Providers (RSPs) every time you invest using Barclays’ Price Improver tool and offer you the best one. 90% of qualifying deals1 placed between 1 February 2017 and 1 February 2018 got a better price than that quoted on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

5. Funds List

There are thousands of different funds to choose from, which can make it difficult for investors to know where to begin. We created the Barclays Funds List as a filtering tool to help investors narrow down the various options.

The funds on the List cover a range of sectors and are selected by Barclays Investment Specialists on the basis that they have built solid reputations and established sound investment processes and so may have the potential to perform well over the medium to long term. We aren’t recommending these funds though, and there are plenty of others that may actually be more suitable for your portfolio. If you’re not sure where to invest, you should seek professional financial advice first.

6. Life Planner

Our Life Planner tool estimates how your savings and investments could potentially perform in future. It does this by outlining the various different routes your portfolio could take based on the information you provide us with. The aim is that it gives you an idea of how much your portfolio could be worth in years to come, and the forecast changes as you update your portfolio’s value, contributions and goals. Remember, however, that no-one knows how investments will actually perform, and you could end up with more or less than the amount projected.

7. Investment news and articles

When making investment decisions, it’s important to be informed. Our Investment news and articles section is designed to help you stay up to date with the latest insight, trends and research from independent industry experts and our own professionals. If you’re unsure where to invest, seek professional financial advice.

8. Barclays Experts

We’ve got several experts at Barclays Smart Investor with years of experience who regularly provide their investment insights to help you make smarter investment decisions. They can help break down some of the common jargon you’ll come across as an investor, and explain the effect that economic changes have on financial markets.

9. Online transfer process

If you’re moving investments across to Barclays Smart Investor, you’ll want the process to be as quick and easy as possible. That’s why we’ve made the transfer process simple and straightforward, so that once you’ve opened a Barclays Investment ISA or Investment Account, you can move your investments across in just four online steps. All you need to do is select the provider you’re moving from and the investments you want. Then, once you’ve checked you’re happy with your choices, you need to confirm you’re happy to proceed and your investments can then be transferred. Transferring a cash ISA to us can take 1-2 weeks, while an investment ISA or investment account transfer can take 2-4 weeks. Before transferring your investments, remember that you’ll need to find out about any charges, exit penalties, benefits you may lose or investments that you can’t transfer to us.

And if you ever decide you want to move your investments away from Smart Investor there will be no exit fee to pay and that process is also automated and managed online.

10. Choice of investments

You can choose from a range of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), investment trusts and over 2,000 funds on Smart Investor, as well as thousands of shares, bonds and gilts (government bonds). And if you’ve got a Barclays current account, you’ll be able to see all the investments you’ve bought along with your Barclays banking products in one place, via a single log-in. Remember that reading a fund's Key Investor Information Document (KIID) and factsheet is vital before you invest, so that you can be certain you fully understand the fund’s risks, charges and objectives. Smart Investor does not offer financial advice, so it’s down to you to decide how to invest your money.

Investment Account

Before you start

Tempting as it may be to plunge straight into investing, you may need to address other aspects of your personal finances first. In this section, you'll learn more about some of the things you should take into consideration before putting your money to work.

Principles of investing

If you’re new to investing, knowing where to start can be a daunting task. Here, we guide you through your investment journey, from what to consider before you start, the different types of investment account, which might suit you, and the various asset classes. You’ll also learn why it’s important to focus on the long-term as an investor, and create a diversified portfolio, which includes a range of different investments.

Important information

Applies to deals placed on the London Stock Exchange within a Barclays Investment Account and Investment ISA across the following asset classes – stocks and shares, Exchange Traded Funds, investment trusts and Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Barclays Investment Solutions Limited provides wealth and investment products and services (including the Smart Investor investment services) and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is a member of the London Stock Exchange and NEX. Registered in England. Registered No. 2752982. Registered Office: 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP.